TEST DRIVE MEME 3

[nolandmod]

NOTES:

IF BOTH CHARACTERS APP IN AND AGREE, THREADS USING PROMPT 1 CAN BE COUNTED AS GAME CANON.
PLEASE READ THE FAQ TO DECIDE YOUR ORGANIC FORM BEFORE POSTING!

PROMPT 1: ARRIVAL

You awake laying on your back in an, admittedly comfortable, pod. You can't move anything but your eyes, can't even feel your body yet. How you got here or why is a blank. You may have been in the middle of your day, asleep, or even- for what you remember- should be dead. Then a screen directly in front of your face flickers to life and in crisp, black and white displays: DON'T PANIC. The following video then plays:

Watch on YouTube

The screen flickers again and reads: CONGRATULATIONS ON PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE! WELCOME TO VAULT LIFE, CITIZEN. WELCOME TO YEAR: [ERROR]. YOUR PERSONAL BELONGINGS ARE LOCATED IN [FILE CORRUPTED. SEE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR]. ENJOY YOUR STAY AND THANK YOU FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT VAULT-TEC.

The pod then unseals and you are able to, unstably at first, climb out of the pod. Your body may feel foreign for a moment- perhaps entirely foreign if you suddenly find yourself a human, ghoul, or super mutant for the first time. But whatever your form, you have two items on: a bright blue jumpsuit with the number 66 in yellow on the back, and a mechanical device known as a Pip-boy sealed onto your arm. If you click on the buttons it takes you to an instruction screen.

You look around to find yourself in a room of other pods. Some are just opening, other people looking as confused as you climbing out. Others remain closed with the status of 'STASIS' on the screens attached to the pods. The rest of the room is less than impressive. Computer systems that seem out of place compared to the technology level of the pods are scattered across the room, apparently running the chambers. Trying to access them, even for the most talented hacker, will simply result in SEE OVERSEER being displayed. There is large metal door leading to the rest of the vault, a lever on the wall next to it that will cause it to open.

Welcome, dweller, to vault 66.

PROMPT 2: SETTLING IN

The living quarters of the vault leave something to be desired. While the current occupants of the vault have made some improvements, it's hard to ignore the pile of skeletons placed into storage (it’s a pretty impressive pile) and the mildew on the beds. It's clear that whatever happened to the last occupants of the vault, whoever they were, it wasn't exactly a peaceful end. The medical wing has some of the worst blood splatter...but that at least you can pretend was from needed medical interventions. Right?

Thankfully, the Vault has power at least. The juke box in the recreation area cheerfully pumps out some jazzy tunes and the refrigerators are happily humming along. There's also clean, if very mineral tasting, water in the sinks, toilets, and showers. There's a pool table if someone can relax enough for a game and doesn't mind the fact it looks like a pool cue shoved in the eye socket may have caused the death of a couple of the previously mentioned skeletons. Further, the kitchen is stocked with some food! It's all pre-apocalypse or some newly collected ‘meat’ (ask the current residents if you want to know), hyper preserved canned goods and sugary cereals that somehow haven't gone bad yet, but it's something.

Today all the local robots have been recalled by the newly found ‘Captain’ to undergo mandatory repairs and maintenance. They’re locked away in the Overseers office, leaving only the human residents to great the newly awakened dwellers. Or to do any of the other day to day tasks in the vault, like make food or keep things tidy. The pool table was cleaned before Louis took off, leaving a fine game open for people to try.

PROMPT 3: Uranium Fever!

Earlier in the month, a few brave dwellers opened up the room to one of the testing chambers and destroyed the creature that lived within. Well done! However, with a new source of radiation available (from the waste barrel in the room) some of the radroaches and mole rats have been getting bigger. And glowing. Specifically, a bright neon-green radroach the size of German shepherd can be found wandering through the halls, eating whatever it can get its mandibles on. Possibly worse, a glowing mole rat the size of a small bear is out there and is organizing. While the vault mole rats have mostly traveled alone or in pairs, this big mama travels with a very aggressive crew of 4-5 non-glowing mole rats, and seems set on reclaiming the testing area for its own. They need to be taken care of, or the robots may be stuck in the Overseer office a while longer and, further, the door labeled Entrance inaccessible to the current vault dwellers.

Hope you’ve been sharpening your knives.

PIP-BOY CHATTER

Post text or audio messages to the pip-boy network to get to know your fellow dwellers!

Comments

Lily Bowen | Fallout: New Vegas

[lilysmash]

Prompt 1

The... person? creature? thing? getting out of one pod is somewhere in the range of eight or nine feet tall, bulky, and blue. Not the blue of the Vault suits, but a softer, blue; almost the color of worn denim. And if the Vault suit that its wearing is any indication, there is a lot of muscle in that seven, eight hundred pounds. There's some sort of brace on its upper lip, showing off huge, yellowing teeth and it is bald.

"My, I didn't know Vault suits came in this size."

The creature's voice is gravelly and very male sounding.

"When did we stop in a Vault? Jimmy?" They stop and shake their head. "No, not Jimmy. They aren't Jimmy; they said so."

Their eyes widen with something akin to fright and they start feeling over themself, as if looking for pockets.

"No, oh no, no, no. My tapes are gone!"


Prompt 2:

There is a big, blue super mutant in the kitchen, and they are humming to themself. This particular Super Mutant is a lady, but good luck telling that right off. There are a few boxes and cans on the counter in front of her and the mixing bowl in her hand looks like it would be a soup bowl for her.

"Oh, what I wouldn't give for a rad-chicken. Their eggs are so little but they'd work." She shakes her head after a moment. "No, Leo, keeping a deathclaw for the eggs is not a good idea. They're too ornery, especially in a Vault full of people."

She sets the bowl down and tears the top off of a very old looking box of flour; it goes everywhere. She dumps what's left into the mixing bowl and then looks through the other boxes and cans.


PIP-Boy Chatter

[The voice coming over the network is gravelly and definitely masculine sounding.]

Hello, dears. My, but it's been ever so long since I've lived in a Vault. We all knew each other then, but that's just what happens when you know everyone from birth to death.

If we're going to be all living together, I'd like to get to know you. I'm Lily, or Mrs. Bowen if you have a mind to, although my husband has been gone for... ... ...well, a long time now. I have two grandkids; little Becky and little Jimmy. They're sweet, gentle angels... except when they're not.

Prompt 1

[wildguardian]

Well, there's one thing going for this giant mutant: no tentacles coming out of their mouth. And they're talking! In a nonthreatening manner! Yunlan's holding still near the door of the pod room, but as the creature starts patting down their Vault suit for tapes, he clears his throat.

"Hey there," he essays, and breaks into a brief smile. "Sounds like you recognize the suit! You've been here before?"

Prompt 2

[cicadashell]

Jiro isn't particularly put off by the creature's appearance. He's seen uglier monsters. It's the cooking that throws him. He watches from the doorway until the thing is throwing flour everywhere and then he... laughs.

"We have a limited supply of that shit, you know."

He doesn't care; he's just trying to get a rise out of it.

Prompt 1

[the6th]

She knows that voice. She's barely finished hoisting herself out of of the pod when she hears it, and hell. She's used to waking up in new and strange places herself, but this is the first time someone's brought along one of her companions. Waiting just long enough to be sure her somewhat wobbly legs will hold her, she's moving towards that voice as soon as she can, turning to see- well then. She's never seen a supermutant in a vault suit before. She grins anyway, because she always enjoys Lily's company; if she's going to be stuck in a vault, at least she's in good company.

"Not Jimmy, nope. Just me," she says as she makes her way over, and then- oh hell. She knows how much those tapes mean to Lily. Her grin shifts to a frown. Waking up with nothing on her but the vaultsuit and pipboy (empty, still not over that dammit, where the hell did all her data go) is one thing; she's learned to never get too attached to material objects, not with all the shit that can happen in the wasteland. Lily losing the tapes of her grandchildren is another thing completely.

"They have to be around here somewhere," she tells her friend, her lips pursing. "Whoever put us in here had to do something with all our things. We'll just have to find them."

2; can assume she's your courier or an alternate universe, not picky since she's malleable!

[paciencia]

The Courier has found herself in another predicament and she's the least of all shocked to be stuck like this. She hates that she isn't in bulky and intimidating armor and is reduced to wearing a vault suit -- of a Vault she's never heard of. She hopes that it just means that it's outside of New Vegas, but even that doesn't provide her any comfort. The world is a damn big place and Vault-Tec is a behemoth of a company with it's fangs pressed deep and poised to draw blood and flesh from any place it may tear it from.

She feels exhausted from her travels, yet strangely refreshed from the cool air of the cryogenic pods. Better than tasting copper and soil in your mouth, anyway. The Pip-Boy unnerves her in some ways, having replaced her own yet still having the same eerie glow that soothes when you find yourself lost. She hasn't found the exit yet, so the next course of action is food (if possible). The Courier doesn't expect anything more than nothing, but damned if she doesn't hope for a Sunset Sarsaparilla or ten. Even if she was parched enough to drown herself in water, it always seemed to hit the spot.

...but she certainly doesn't expect familiar company upon entering the room. Her dark blonde hair is still dirty, but not crusted with the sand of the wastes or matted with blood and grime and guts. She'd consider herself downright presentable in the moment, which is a rare luxury. She tugs her hair into a makeshift bun, flipping it around so it's almost knotted (and will hopefully stay without something to keep it in place).

"...Lily?" Her voice is gruff; left behind. She hasn't used it in a while. Before now she'd been off on her own with Rex for a bit, doing recon and gathering supplies. Nothing major. But it was quiet. "Not sure there's a room big enough for a Deathclaw. Or a cage. Wouldn't mind an omelet right about now, though."

There's a smile in her voice and it's weak. Tired.

Prompt 1!

[pride_outbreak]

Saya isn't paying attention, she was currently walking and going over some notes in her pip-boy as she entered the pod bay.

"Hey guys, have the pods shown sign of any-- WAAAGH What the hell is that?!" She stumbles backwards and falls on her rear being caught off guard by the sight of a very tall... SOMETHING!

lil hal. homestuck.

[clipon]

Prompt one: Arrival.

[ hal isn't happy. he wakes early on in the round, stumbling out of the pod literally and figuratively—he's never had a body before, and he's never walked before, so he's doing a piss-poor job of it. he also seems to be having trouble breathing, because he's hyperventilating, which is weird, but there are a pair of shades over his eyes to hide how wide and alarmed his bright red eyes are.

he's lean and pale and kind of short but freckled across his face, and his hair is blond and pointy. anime hair. this is new. this is new and he can touch things and he has a body and he doesn't know what to do with it and he thinks he's going crazy and he— ]

—where's Dirk?

[ he croaks that out, not even really looking at who he's speaking to. do you even know a dirk? probably not. ]

Prompt two: Settling in.

[ hal is still getting used to this. his body, now able to move and breathe properly, is doing fine. having a human brain is... not great? not great. he hates that part, actually. he always thought he deserved a body to touch things, to do things, to flip a fucking cartwheel if he wanted, but not like this, not with a slow human brain that can't process things instantly in milliseconds like his processors can.

He supposes he owes Dirk that much, at least.

in any case he realized belatedly he needs to eat, so he's in the dining area to scrounge, but gets distracted by the jukebox. at least until he hears i'm right behind you baby slip out, tinny and dated, and he turns away abruptly and moves to find some canned fruit or something. he looks pensive, but not alarmed, at least not by the contents of the song. more thoughtful than anything. ]

Prompt ░▒░▓░▒░░▓: Pip-boy chatter.

[ a voice rings out. there's a texan drawl, and there's a little something to it--he sounds kind of like a gay cowboy. anyway: ]

While I'm relegated to audio because I'm unable to force our graciously-provided technological dinosaurs to accept my font choices yet, I have something to ask.

Are there any other non-organics that have been forced into an organic form here?

Pip-boy chatter

[wildguardian]

dont tell me the regular old font isnt good enough for you! if you unlock emoji for us you gotta share the wealth though.

what do you mean about non organics? we have some robots but theyre.

you know!

robots!

Arrival

[cicadashell]

[More pods are opening, it seems. Jiro has mixed feelings about that; there's quite a few annoying people already here. He watches Hal stumble out of the pod, and his first impression is of someone useless and weak.]

I dunno who the fuck Dirk is, but you can bet he's not here. Catch!

[He throws something over to Hal, casually. It's a human skull. He's been collecting more skeletons for the storage closet.]

Welcome to the vault.

Pip-Boy

[promiselisting]

Can't say anything about the whole organic thing though I've heard weirder

Working on the fonts tho

[ Among other things. She can't use kaomojis like this and it is a goddamn crime ]

settling in

[exclamation_marks]

[Yes Man has finally, after a lot of industrious crawling, managed to make it to the dining area. The new perspective is certainly a novelty, and the tables and chairs in the way have optimistically provided somewhat of an improvised lesson in turning, a feat that he manages successfully some of the time. He's giving humans a little bit more credit after this - they might not be able to back up their neuro-computational matrix several times a day, but they sure can locomote around their ill-optimized bodies! It's a miracle they manage to get anything done!]

[Speaking of, it's a good thing he breathes automatically - oops, now he's breathing manually again! Yes Man has to focus on this part super hard, or he's going to pass out a bunch of times!]

[Anyway the point is, behind Hal as he turns is a manually-breathing, manually-blinking, mostly silent, crawling man.]

Courier Six | Fallout: New Vegas

[the6th]

Prompt One: Arrival

The first thing she becomes aware of as consciousness slowly begins to return is that, rather than being in her nice, comfortable bed in the Lucky 38, she's in some kind of metal pod. The second thing she becomes aware of is the brightly lit screen in front of her eyes, just as it flashes text at her (snort, 'don't panic,' uh huh, sure) and then starts playing a video. A video that just makes her want to snort harder. Fucking Vault-Tec? Hells, why is she watching a Vault-Tec video in some strange pod? Tuning the video out for the moment, she directs her mind inwards, taking mental stock of herself. She feels fine physically (nothing missing this time that she tell, so at least it's not Big MT all over again), even if she can't move yet, and that is a little disconcerting; she's wearing something skin-tight, and not the same kind of tight that she likes in her pants and shirts, but more like the vault suit that she hadn't worn since Doc Mitchell lent her one in Goodsprings, and that's a little ominous combined with the playing video; mentally everything seems to check, her thoughts moving perhaps a bit slow at the moment, but no more than any other time she's just waking, but she has full control of them and her emotions. Alright. Now to just figure out where-

And then the video lulls, text flashing on the screen again in its place and- oh hell. Maybe she should have expected that, but waking to a Vault-Tec video is one thing. Being welcomed into her new life in a vault is another thing entirely. She scowls- oh good, she can move again- at the text, slowly testing her extremities as she regains control over them, and then- ahhhh, good. As the lid of the pod lifts, freeing her from its confines, she pushes up immediately, ignoring how tenuous her grip is on the side of the pod, or the way, after she hoists herself out, her legs waver weakly beneath her before she feels safe enough to release her grip and stand fully on them. The weight of a pipboy on her left arm is familiar, but her scowl only deepens when, once she lifts it to check her location on its map, she finds it empty of all the information she's been building up since Goodsprings, the map showing nothing more than the room she's currently standing in.

Shit. While she's woken in strange places more times than she cares to admit, finding her pipboy empty is new, and more than a little unwelcome. Her lips flattened into a thin line, she inhales deeply and casts her eyes around the room, looking for anyone not crawling their way out of the other pods in the room. Looking for someone who'll have answers.

"Does anyone know which vault this is?" It doesn't look like any of the ones she's explored or visited herself, and really, it's not like she knows what vaults go with which Vault-Tec experiments by their number, or where every vault in the country is, but it's a place to start.



Prompt Two: Settling In

A vault. A sealed vault. One that, unsurprisingly, had bad things happen to its previous residents, going by the amount of skeletons stuffed into the storage room and the blood splatters that liberally stain the dirty and dusty spread out rooms. She still has no idea how she ended up in a stasis pod of a sealed vault, but. It could be worse. At least whoever kidnapped and stashed her here had the grace to wait until after everything had settled down in Vegas; the city's in good hands now, even without her there to help out, and it's not like her companions aren't used to her randomly disappearing for significant lengths of time with no prior notice. Which, sure, means that they won't come looking for her, but she has faith she'll find her way out eventually. Neither Big MT, nor the Sierra Madre, nor the Divide could keep her; a sealed vault didn't stand a chance of keeping her either. And, since it wasn't actively trying to kill her (a downright pleasant change from her previous kidnappings), there was no reason why she shouldn't relax as she tried to figure out where to go from here, and how to get free.

She's in the rec room accordingly, a pool-stick in hand and seemingly unperturbed by the dark stain (the one that's very likely blood) on the end of it as she lines up a shot on the pool table. The sleeves of her vault-suit are gone, cut off and the seam neatly re-sewn with a needle and thread she'd found, showing off the dark scratched-up and scarred skin of her arms (a life of adventures in the wastes has certainly left its marks); her dark purple-almost-black curls have been pulled back in a super loose and low ponytail, cascading down to her mid-back, a few escaping over her shoulder as she leans on the table; her pale amber, almost yellow, eyes are narrowed as she eyes the balls on the table, making the necessary calculations in her head. Then, after a long moment, she draws the pool-stick back, and then shoots. The cue ball goes rocketing swiftly from the powerful strike, and the loud crack as it hits another ball and sends it rolling into a pocket might be enough to startle someone happening by. Her thin lips curl up into a satisfied smirk as she straightens up and eyes the table again. Her attention seems to be fully focused on her examination, but she hasn't lived this long in the wasteland- hasn't survived this long as The Courier- by ignoring her surroundings; finely tuned ears pick up the sound of footsteps behind her, someone approaching, and she calls out cheerily,

"Afternoon. Care to join a girl for a game?"



Prompt Three: Uranium Fever!

A life in the wasteland has taught her well that mutated pests are not a threat to be ignored, no matter how large or small, weak or strong, they might be. And given that the vault is sealed, and its not like these particular pests are going to wander off and disappear into the wastes, she's decided to be proactive about them- especially after catching sight of the way some of them were glowing. Glowing creatures were never good. So she's armed herself with one of the pool-sticks from the rec room, with an extra cleaver from the kitchens strapped around her waist for backup, and she's off to find the things and put them down- both for the good of the vault, and frankly, for her own good.

She'd never live it down if she got killed by a damned radroach or mole rat in her sleep.

She's crouched at the far end of a hallway from the large, glowing radroach- the biggest one she's ever seen, hell. Her pool-stick is in hand, her eyes narrowed as she watches it skitter farther down the corridor, trying to decide whether to charge it, or wait and see if it comes back this way, or stalk it farther if it heads elsewhere. Care to join her?

Settling In

[wildguardian]

"I'd love to." Yunlan saunters past her, glancing over the remaining pool cues before he picks up one he'd beaten a mole rat to death with two weeks back. It's still got the teeth marks on the side, although he'd been careful about wiping off the blood.

"Doubt I'm much competition for you, though, sister -- I'm Zhao Yunlan, by the way. I take it one of those pods spat you out?"

She's already customizing her suit. The scars sprinkled down her arms speak of hundreds of fights won, and hair that long in a fighter says confidence. He flashes her a smile and weighs the cue in his hand, surveying the table. He's a tall man, lean and rangy in a Vault suit that's picked up a handful of unpleasant stains; his hair isn't grown out much past a stylish center-parted cut, but there's a month's patchy beard darkening his cheeks. It's not the look he'd prefer to have meeting a stranger, but it's about the best he can manage, for now.

Maybe if he's very very lucky, he'll track down a razor.

Sara Sidle | CSI : Vegas

[cannonwithagun]

Prompt 1

[Anyone who may already be out of their pod, or coming in to check something is going to see a brunette fall out of the pod very, very ungracefully. She glares at the pod, then at her feet which seem to have failed her, before picking herself up and brushing herself off, scoping out her new clothing and accessory as she does so.

There's a moment as she taps her side, something's missing, but she doesn't mention it as she wanders over to one of the terminals, looking confused. Then she notices anyone watching.]

Lost in my head. Hey, do you live here?

Prompt 2

[Of course, the first place Sara would go is the medical bay. If this was (supposedly) where she was stuck (please god no) for a while, she might as well have some sort of inventory on what's left.

She pauses at the entry when she sees the blood.]

The hell happened here?

Prompt 3

[She didn't get called cannon with a gun without a reason. And she may not have her sidearm, but the baseball bat she found will work just as well.]

Who wants to play some Whack a Rat?

Wildcard

[Want to do something else? Hit her up on the pip boy? Hit me!]

Prompt 1

[wildguardian]

For my sins, I sure do!

[Yunlan's been checking on the pod room every so often; it had been a month since his own awakening, and he's hoping there's a pattern. One point to his instincts! He flashes the woman a smile.]

Zhao Yunlan. Been awake about a month -- how are you feeling? Need to sit down for a few?

Prompt 2

[the6th]

You might not want to know the answer to that. Depends on how squeamish you are.

[She's come to check on the state of the medical supplies herself; it's always a good thing to know what's available and what's not, especially when there are pests roaming around. She glances at the blood stains briefly, then shrugs them off and turns her attention to the other woman.]

Vaults can be nasty places, and bad things tend to happen in them. Whatever Vault-Tec was doing before we woke up here, you really might not want to know.

1.

[clipon]

[ hal just looks like a wiry teenager in his jumpsuit, lean and very slightly above average height with blond hair and obscured eyes. he takes stock of the woman before him, pauses, and considers the best answer. it takes longer than it would have in his true form, which would be microseconds.

this takes approximately one, two beats. ]

It seems we all do, as it happens. I would welcome you, but it's hardly the grand entrance.

Futaba Sakura | Persona 5

[promiselisting]

1. Settling In

[ Futaba is dealing with all this about as well as can be expected. Which is to say she's jammed herself in the smallest space available (in between the couch and an end table) and stuck a (desiccated) potted plant in front of her. Still, until then she's going to be fixating her attention on the thing attached to her arm now, seeing how far she can break into it and what she can unlock.

Ideally it. From her wrist.

Either way she's half-expecting to hear the Metal Crank "spotted" noise to go off at any point - she's technically hidden but her hair kind of gives her a -2 stealth debuff. Or if, somehow failing to notice her, someone sits down on said couch, she might very well jump out of her hiding space as if branded, eyes wide and frightened. At least whoever it is will have a moment to say something or catch her before she bolts. ]

2. Pip-Boy Shenanigans

[ The majority of Futaba Sakura's first message is a certain logo rendered painstakingly - text and all - in ASCII art. ]

Okay sound off, who recognizes this at all?

Also anybody know where the real tech in this place is? The whole retro bright letters on dark screen look is cool and all but I saw those pods. I know that's not all there has to be more.

[ That kind of VR was still mostly theoretical in Tokyo 20XX. She does not buy that the rest of this world's tech is still so... provincial. ]

3. Uranium Fever!

[ Being out of the Metaverse means no super-stealth powers that probably half-relied on cognition. It also meant no Necronomicon (at least no more physical Necronomicon, Necronomicon was her Persona and thus always a part of her, she would have been freaked out if they were entirely gone), and thus no ability to scan for hostiles and thus avoid them.

She absolutely wants to explore this new area the other people here supposedly unlocked though. That's like, RPG 101 - newly unlocked area? Should probably go explore it! Get new gear and lore and shit. But the problem with being support is that she has. No battle skills to speak of! Ugh.

So she has to suck it up, take a deep breath, and approach anyone else who looks like they're coming towards the tunnel to the testing area ]

J-join my party?

Uranium Fever!

[wildguardian]

[Yunlan pauses at the request, blinks, and gives the kid (one of the new ones this month, right? Sakura-- right?) a dubious once-over.]

Sure, just let me get this clear: you do know we're not in an MMO here, right?

What're you planning?

1. Settling In

[cicadashell]

[Jiro was going to sit on the couch, but that potted 'plant' isn't hiding much. Futaba manages to come off as somewhat comical, trying to hide like a kid playing at espionage.]

The fuck are you doing down there!?

[It's not meant to be frightening or demanding, but he has no inside voice, nor any manners to speak of.]

2

[lilysmash]

[Lily is on audio because what is typing when you're a nightkin? Her voice is gravelly and definitely masculine.]

I've never seen that before, dear, but you did such a good job recreating it. It looks like something you'd see on the Strip.

And the 'real' tech... I remember Mama telling me about it when I was just a little thing. Most of it was lost in the Great War.

Harley Quinn | Harley Quinn animated series

[deepended]

Arrival

It really wasn't a way she liked to make an entrance. Harley liked strutting into the room, tiger on a leash, popped bottle of champagne in hand. Not being some random bleached-white skinned blond dry-heaving on the ground after her legs gave out under her. Probably should have waited a minute to get up? But no freaking box was going to tell her what to do. She wasn't here to just stay calm and carry on. So instead she'll be here, freaking out.

"What the unholy shitballs!"


Settling in: Sugar Bombs

At least the food was freaking dope. There's no milk, but given all the shit she'd eaten in Arkham in her time, a little dry cereal was nothing. And with a name like sugar bombs, it promised to help her snap out of this existential brain freeze this whole place was trying to force on her. Just like it has forced her into an ugly blue jumpsuit. And really? The whole place was giving her more and more Arkham-reject vibes by the minute. She kicked up her feet on one of the booth tables and, with a mouth full of half-chewed sugar bomb, shared her speculation with the room.

"Maybe it's just a new asylum wing or something, huh? Drive us all extra fucking crazy. Sounds like the kinda crap Scarecrow would dream up."

settling in

[wildguardian]

"Ooh," Yunlan said, tossing himself down in the booth across from the newcomer with a calculated disregard for how much space his elbows and knees occupied, "I like that theory! Let me tell you, if I'm hallucinating it'd explain so much. Zhao Yunlan."

He shifts enough to put one foot up on the booth seat and stretch a hand across the table, offering a handshake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you! How's the cereal?"

joshua graham | fallout: new vegas

[slcpd]

PROMPT ONE: ARRIVAL.

[ It is unexpected. He prides himself on preparation, of being ready to strike before stricken; Joshua does not like this.

He was graced with his wrap, seemingly still fresh but not pristine white around his skin. It obscures his face and his body, though the skin around his eyes is dark, faintly red and twisted. Scars healed over after the fires cleansed him. His outfit has been changed and he remembers none of it and there's... some small joke in the idea of wearing a vault suit. It's nearly humorous that he's now in one -- by all means, it could be less comfortable.

What he's more worried about is that it doesn't seem to be armored or lined. It offers no protection. He's certain he'll need that now.

Though the message that was provided seem scrambled, going to the office of the Overseer seems like the best course of action. He hovers while considering his next move and hesitates in speaking to someone else. That they are in the same vault suit and that they haven't come for him suggests they're in the same predicament. ]

I imagine you know as little as I do. Shall we explore together?

[ He won't ask for help. But he'd like to keep an eye on this person. Even without a weapon, he can handle someone with his hands. He doesn't want it to come to that, though. ]

PROMPT TWO: SETTLING IN.

[ He finds his stomach informing him of his hunger before the pangs of need happens to. While he is used to eating his fill whenever it is needed, he hesitates to indulge in the food here. He's still too suspicious of potentially being poisoned, though he argues internally that anyone that would go through the trouble of capturing him wouldn't derive joy from something as simple as poisoned soda or snack cakes.

His hunger wins out.

He keeps a steady and purposeful pace to the kitchens and begins to rummage. He's hoping for something fresh or with more protein in it over preserved sweets, but he'll take what nourishment he can get. He's survived this long by doing what is necessary. Joshua murmurs to himself as he opens another cupboard in the pantry. ]

I suppose it could always be worse.

[ Worse is something that he is intimately familiar with. ]

PROMPT THREE: PIP-BOY.

We are all trapped together. It is better to have faith in something.

What do you believe in?

arrival

[wildguardian]

I might know a little more, but you're right! Not much. I woke up out of one of those things about a month ago.

[Yunlan's in another Vault suit, though his has acquired a few stains around the cuffs -- oil, mole-rat blood, and the like. He offers the bandaged stranger a friendly smile. Odd, those bandages. What are they covering? Injuries? Shouldn't those have had time to heal over however long they've all been stuck in the pods?]

I wouldn't mind showing you around. I'm Zhao Yunlan -- pleasure to meet you, friend.

Yes Man | Fallout: New Vegas

[exclamation_marks]

[Arrival]

[It takes a while for Yes Man to climb out of his pod. He's definitely struggling with all these sudden new appendages! He's never found anything particularly wrong with a heavy-duty monowheel and a gyroscopic stabilizer in the first place, so all of this physical huffing and puffing and lower body co-ordination is just... really challenging!]

Don't mind me! [he loudly announces to nobody at all, muffled face down. A knee experimentally pushes forward, and it shifts his center of balance so his elbow slips. He bangs his chin on the edge. Ow?] I just love a challenge! So I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually! With nooo help at all. Because who needs help? Not me!

[And figure it out he does. Yes Man finally manages to move enough of his body over the edge of the pod that he tumbles to the ground.]

[Settling in]

[Walking seems to be a bit beyond Yes Man's capabilities right now. Actually, a lot of things are. What's usually an command for him is now some really involved physical movement with a lot of steps, and a billion ways to get it wrong! The arms are fine - if not too bendy in ways that he expects - but maintaining balance is a totally different story. He finds himself pitching over at the waist too often, faceplanting on the ground.]

[Mentally, it's just as confused. Processing is just so... sluggish. Yes Man constantly finds himself trying to access terminals and backups of his intergrated data network to figure out how he got here, and just giving himself a weird feeling in his head that accomplishes absolutely nothing. Gosh, humans are kinda dumb, huh? Now he feels kind of bad, it's really just not their fault! But if there's one advantage, Yes Man doesn't feel compelled by the programming Benny put in his code, because... well... there's no more code!]

[Yes Man is processing all of this as he crawls along the floor. He's getting the hang of it!]

arrival

[wildguardian]

Sooo....

[Yunlan crouches down next to the guy who's inchworming his way over the floor panels, squinting at him.]

You need a hand there, buddy? You don't look so good.